Fox Cancels ‘COPS’ After 25 Years, Series Moves to Spike TV This Fall

Fox has cancelled the long-running docu-series “COPS” after 25 seasons, it was announced Monday, according to Deadline.

Saturday night’s season finale marked the show’s last original episode airing on the Fox network. The writing was on the wall, however; this final year of “COPS” was cut short to an abbreviated 16-episode season, with the show on hiatus for nearly half the year. Another hint: its former Saturday night partner-in-crime “America’s Most Wanted” was cancelled last year by Fox, before it moved to Lifetime (which then cancelled it again earlier this year).

So, bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?… Move to cable!

The venerable series will live on in cable land — “COPS” has already been picked up by Spike TV for Season 26.

“Cops is a remarkable series that has been able to sustain strong ratings well into its third decade, a monumental achievement in television,” said Spike TV president Kevin Kay in a statement. “As we continue to grow and expand our audience, new episodes of Cops, with its loyal audience of Adults 18-49, is the perfect addition to our prime-time lineup on Saturday nights.”

“COPS” will air on its same time and night — just on a different channel — airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Spike TV, beginning this fall.

One of TV’s first “reality shows,” “COPS,” which premiered in 1989 and has aired nearly 900 episodes, celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this year.